Wahconah boys basketball holds on to top Mount Everett in Wein consolation

NORTH ADAMS — Wahconah hung on to win the consolation game of the Gene Wein Tournament over Mount Everett.

Wahconah held a seven-point lead with 2 minutes and 32 seconds, but the Warriors let the Eagles hang around, needing a last-second stop to get the win.

Everett's Christian Behne hit a jumper and Dan Litchfield followed with a 3-pointer, cutting Wahconah's lead to two with 2.4 seconds left in the game.

Wahconah just needed to inbound the ball to ice the game, but Cole Morrison was called for an offensive foul on the inbound play, giving the Eagles the ball under their basket with 1.1 seconds remaining.

Blaise Twing looked to inbound the ball, but was forced to throw a deep pass to Cassius Conaway and his 3-pointer missed, ending the game.

"That last play was designed to get Demontti [Conaway] the ball cutting down toward the hoop," Everett coach Jowe Warren said. "He was there, but [Twing] didn't see him in time. It needed to be a split-second decision and he waited just a little bit too long."

Litchfield led Everett with 12 points. Conaway added seven points.

Despite the bad foul, Morrison played well down low for Wahconah, scoring seven points, Matt Schneider led the Warriors with 12 points.

The first half was a very out of sync performance from both teams. They combined for 23 turnovers and neither team looked comfortable on offense. The Eagles 3-point shooting kept them in the game, however, as 12 of their 16 first-half points came from distance.

Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said he'd take the win despite the sloppy play from his team. Moving forward, he said he wants his players too create offensive organically, without trying to force the issue.

"We didn't execute well offensively, but on defense we made the stop when we need to," he said. "We just have to get better at our half-court sets. We've got to better and running our offense, and get our timing and space down."

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